‘Love Machines #1-2:’ Comic Book Review

Love Machines is an anthology comic about . . . well, love and machines. On the surface, this sounds like the sort of thing that’s become a staple of sci-fi: a robot learns to love its creator, a human falls in love with an A.I., etc. That’s not what this is, though, or anything even close to it. The first two issues contain two stories apiece, each dealing with a different type of machine, and a different type of love—and there’s nary an A.I. among them.

In the first issue, we begin with “Workers of All Lands, Unite,” where we meet Ritsuko, a Japanese college student who’s taken a job at SunSunFunLand theme park to pay for her education. While working in the little-visited “Hall of Philosophers,” she develops an interest in an animatronic Karl Marx, accompanied by a newfound passion for Communism. Then, we move on to “Appliances in Love,” about the star-crossed romance between a microwave and a vending machine.

The second issue brings us a different kind of machine with “The Velocipede,” about a poor farm family of a couple hundred years ago, and the encroaching of technology into their simple lives with that infernal new contraption, the bicycle. Finally, “Solenoids” tells the story of a man who really, REALLY loves pinball.

The stories in these two issues are all a little bit strange, exploring both core themes of the comic in some odd and very unique ways. They’re all written by Josh Trujillo, but each story has a different artist, giving them all their own unique looks and styles. The concepts take a little getting used to, but once you start getting into it, these stories explore some fascinating concepts in ways probably unlike anything you’ve seen. If you’re looking for something a little off the beaten path, you might enjoy checking out Love Machines.